My 2nd year of collecting baseball cards, and the last card set before expansion to 24 teams and divisional play. I have completed the whole set. (Series 1-5, and 7 during 1968. In my neighborhood, the 6th series was unavailable. I completed this in the 1980s.) -- 28-SEP-2009

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Continuing with the "hero numbers", today we have #300....Rusty Staub?!?

If I was compiling a list of "hero status" players from the late 1960s (and here's 58 names to get you started), I'm not sure Rusty Staub would be in my top 50, let alone the top 5. Yes, he was a good player, and one of the best 2 or 3 on the Astros at that time, but in the top 5 (for #100, 200, 300, 400 ,500)?

Here we see Rusty in Topps' patented 1968-69 Astros' regalia. (They forgot to airbrush-out the reflection of the Astros' logo on the helmet bill!) Staub is entering his final year in Houston, as he would become the Montreal Expos' "Le Grand Orange" in 1969.

Staub was signed by the Houston Colt .45s in 1961 (before they even fielded a major-league team). He spent the 1962 season as a 1st baseman in class-B. Rusty made his big-league debut in April 1963 at age 19, starting 2/3 of his games at 1B and 1/3 in right field.

He was the starting 1st baseman for the first half of 1964, but lost the job to Walt Bond in early July.
Rusty was the team's regular right fielder from 1965-67, then moved in to 1st base for the 1968 season.

In January 1969, he was traded to the expansion Expos for outfielder Jesus Alou and 1st baseman Donn Clendenon. When Clendenon refused to report (having had enough of manager Harry Walker while both were with the Pirates), the Expos sent pitchers Jack Billingham and Skip Guinn. Staub was an immediate hit in Montreal (see comment #5 here). Dubbed "Le Grand Orange", he was one of the Expos' bright spots in their early years. In his 3 seasons with the Expos, he averaged 160 games played as the team's right fielder, and made the all-star team each year.

Staub played right field for the Mets from 1972-75, then 3 1/2 seasons with the Tigers (as the right fielder in 1976, then the DH for the other years).

In July '79, he returned to Montreal for the remainder of the season.
After one season (1980) with the Rangers, Staub spent the rest of his career (1981-85) with the Mets, mostly as a pinch-hitter.

Set description I posted in Zistle

The 1968 Topps set included 598 cards, 11 fewer than the previous year. As in 1967, the cards had vertical backs. Topps returned to the teams’ color scheme that was used in the 1966 set (and would also be used in 1969). Cards in the high-numbered 7th series are more difficult to find, due to limited distribution that late in the season.

Among the cards are 20 manager cards, 12 league leader cards, and 8 World Series cards. Inexplicably, there are only team cards for 13 of the 20 teams. The set includes just 30 rookie stars cards (down from 43 the previous year), and there is no Giants Rookie Stars card, which is odd considering that Bobby Bonds would have been a candidate for that card. Multi-player cards decreased from 13 in 1967 to just 3 in the 1968 set. Two of them feature stars from multiple teams. All-star cards (20) returned to the set in 1968, after being absent for several years.

The 1968 set includes the final cards for 48 players and 2 managers, including long-time veterans Eddie Mathews and Roger Maris (who both wrapped up their careers in the 1968 World Series), Rocky Colavito, Elston Howard, Bill Henry, Larry Jackson, Al Worthington, Norm Siebern, Larry Sherry, Jim Bouton, and Floyd Robinson.

Notable rookie cards in the set are Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman (on the same card) and Johnny Bench. Other rookie cards in the set (all “solo” cards) include Gary Nolan, Don Wilson, Manny Sanguillen, Mike Marshall, and Danny Frisella.

1968 rookies with significant playing time who were omitted from the set include Reggie Jackson, Bobby Bonds, Del Unser, Bobby Cox, Hector Torres, Tom Burgmeier, Marty Pattin, and Sparky Lyle.

Other quirks in the 1968 set: - For some (contractual?) reason, all the Astros cards show the team name as “Houston”, and all Astros logos are airbrushed out of the photos. - Since the Athletics moved to Oakland in the off-season, all photos are airbrushed. - As mentioned above, 7 teams did not have a team card, and there was no Giants Rookie Stars card. - The design of the “burlap” borders was changed after the first series. - The "Topps All-Rookie Team" trophy is missing from the cards for Rick Monday, Rich Nye, and Dick Hughes.